<nettime> A Puff Piece on Wikipedia (Fwd)

[Florian Cramer <cantsin@zedat.fu-berlin.de>]

Forwarded, with permission, from my friend tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE. -
I think this raises interesting questions about the integrity and
politics of open content, collaborative online projects and knowledge
repositories.

-F

----- Forwarded message from anonymous <anon@fyi.net> -----

From: anonymous <anon@fyi.net>
Reply-To: anon@fyi.net
To: cantsin@zedat.fu-berlin.de
Subject: A Puff Piece of Wikipedia

Dear Florian,  

It appears that Wikipedia is used as an advertising outlet 
for "elite institutions".  Note the alterations I made 
to the Johns Hopkins University entry below. 
I'm sure you'll be able to pick them out.  
They're only in the 1st paragraph.  
My additions were replaced w/in 23 minutes!  
I suspect that a PR person for JHU monitors & polices 
all content relevant to them.  

Johns Hopkins University

(Revision as of 15:54, 24 Sep 2003) 

The Johns Hopkins University is an elite institution of higher learning
located in Baltimore, Maryland. As such, it is known to some as "The
Plantation". Most of its students are rich people being groomed for
ruling elite positions who are blissfully ignorant of the extremely
impoverished conditions that surround their highly privileged
environment. Their wealth helps drastically escalate the rents beyond
the means of working people. The university opened February 22, 1876,
with the stated goal of "The encouragement of research ... and the
advancement of individual scholars, who by their excellence will advance
the sciences they pursue, and the society where they dwell." (first
President Daniel Coit Gilman). It is named for Johns Hopkins, who left
seven million dollars (ill-gotten gains from gun running during the
Civil War) in his 1867 will for the foundation of The Johns Hopkins
University and The Johns Hopkins Hospital. Johns Hopkins was the first
research university in the United States, founded on the model of German
research institutions. As such, it was the first American university to
offer an undergraduate major (as opposed to a purely liberal arts
curriculum), and the first American university to grant doctoral
degrees. 

The university was designed from the start to marry scholarship and
research, and graduate education has always been paramount. Students at
Johns Hopkins are encouraged to pursue original research at the
undergraduate and graduate levels, and nearly 80% of Johns Hopkins
undergrads produce research by the time of graduation. The School of
Medicine is highly revered, and the Bloomberg School of Public Health is
renowned for contributions worldwide to preventive medicine and the
health of large populations. The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced
International Studies, located in Washington D.C. is recognized as a
world leader in international affairs, diplomacy and government studies.
The university offers education internationally through centers in
China, Singapore and Italy. Johns Hopkins receives more federal research
grants than any other university, and operates the Applied Physics
Laboratory which specializes in nuclear research for the Department of
Defense. Johns Hopkins also offers superior undergraduate programs based
at the Homewood campus in Baltimore: The Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts &
Sciences and the G.W.C. Whiting School of Engineering, which contribute
to Johns Hopkins' reputation as one of the nation's most prestigious
universities. Some of the many strong departments at Johns Hopkins are
History, International Studies, English, Political Science, Biology,
German, Near Eastern Studies, Romance Languages, Art History,
Biophysics, Biomedical Engineering, Film and Media Studies, and
Astronomy. The French Department is recognized as a "center of
excellence" in the study of French culture and language by the
government of France. 

The school's sports teams are named the Blue Jays. They participate in
the NCAA's Division III, and the Centennial Conference. The school's
most prominent sports team is their Division I lacrosse team, which has
won 42 national titles.  The National Lacrosse Hall of Fame is adjacent
to the university. 

Some well-known alumni: 

       Spiro T. Agnew - Vice President of the United States 
       Madeleine Albright - Secretary of State under Bill Clinton 
       John Astin - actor, Gomez Adams on The Addams Family 
       Russell Baker - author, Pulitzer Prize winner, host Masterpiece
       Theater 
       John Barth - novelist 
       Michael Bloomberg - Founder of Bloomberg LP, mayor of New York
       City 
       Rudy Boschwitz - Republican Senator from Minnesota 
       Rachel Carson - enivornmentalist, Silent Spring 
       J.D. Considine - music critic 
       Richard Ben Cramer - journalist, author What It Takes, Pulitzer
       Prize winner 
       Wes Craven - film director 
       Robert W. Fogel - economist, Nobel Prize in Economics, 1993 
       Herbert Spencer Gasser - Nobel Prize in Physiology, 1944 
       Paul Greengard - biophysicist, Nobel Prize in Medicine, 2000 
       Rafael Hernandez Colon - Puerto Rican governor 
       Alger Hiss - lawyer and accused spy 
       Kweisi Mfume - president of the NAACP 
       Merton H. Miller - economist, Nobel Prize in Economics, 1990 
       Thomas Hunt Morgan - Nobel Prize in Medicine, 1933 
       Mike Muuss - author of ping 
       Antonia Novello - United States Surgeon General '90-'93 
       P. J. O'Rourke - political satirist and journalist 
       Sir William Osler - physician 
       Samuel J. Palmisano - IBM Chairman and CEO 
       Matthew Polk - founder of Polk Audio 
       Martin Rodbell - Nobel Prize in Medicine, 1994 
       Francis Peyton Rous - Nobel Prize in Medicine, 1966 
       David Schneiderman - owner, publisher The Village Voice 
       Russ Smith - owner, publisher The New York Press 
       Gertrude Stein - feminist, author 
       Frederick Jackson Turner - historian 
       Thorstein Veblen - economist, author The Theory of the Leisure
       Class 
       John B. Watson - psychologist 
       George Hoyt Whipple - Nobel Prize winner in physiology or
       medicine 
       Jody Williams - Latin American Studies, Nobel Prize in Peace,
       1997 
       Woodrow Wilson - President of the United States 

       Some well-known faculty: 

       Herbert Baxter Adams - historian, coined phrase "political
       science" 
       Christian B. Anfinsen - Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1972 
       John Astin - famed television actor, lecturer in the Johns
       Hopkins Writing Seminars department 
       James Mark Baldwin - philosopher 
       Zbigniew Brzezinski - National Security Advisor '77-'81 
       Benjamin Carson - pediatric neurosurgeon, author Gifted Hands 
       Richard Threlkeld Cox - physicist, Cox's theorem 
       Joseph Erlanger - Nobel Prize in Medicine, 1944 
       James Franck - Nobel Prize in Physics, 1925 
       Francis Fukuyama - political economist, author The End of History 
       Riccardo Giacconi - Nobel Prize in Physics 
       G. Stanley Hall - pioneer in the field of psychology 
       Steve H. Hanke - economist, Presidential advisor, Cato Institute
       senior fellow 
       Haldan Keffer Hartline - Nobel Prize in Medicine, 1967 
       Hans-Hermann Hoppe - economist 
       Basil Lanneau Gildersleeve - classical scholar 
       Simon Kuznets - physicist, Noble Prize 
       Maria Goeppert-Mayer - physicist, Nobel Prize 
       Daniel Nathans - Nobel Prize in Medicine, 1978 
       Lars Onsager - chemist, Nobel Prize 
       Robert G. Parr - theoretical chemist 
       Ronald Paulson - English specialist 
       Charles Peirce - logician 
       Ayn Rand - author The Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged 
       Ira Remsen - chemist, discoverer of saccharin 
       Hamilton O. Smith - Nobel Prize in Medicine, 1978 
       James Joseph Sylvester - mathematician 
       Harold Clayton Urey - Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1934 

External links

       Johns Hopkins University website


----- End forwarded message -----

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